Why Remain Catholic? Divine Revelation
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Last week, Jeff talked about “setting your face like flint” and not leaving the Church and the sacraments because of the sins of men. This week, Jeff continues his discussion on why we should remain Catholic and delves into divine revelation using paragraphs 27-100 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).
find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for.”
Philosophers have developed four levels of happiness. They are:
Snippet from the Show
Just because there’s a couple bad eggs doesn’t mean that the truth is gone and we throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because there’s been a 50 percent divorce rate in America doesn’t mean that marriage isn’t valid and beautiful and fruitful and wonderful. It just means that people failed. But it is not an excuse for you to leave the Eucharist.
SHOWNOTES
Man’s Capacity For God: Invitation to Human Happiness
Everyone is searching for happiness. As the CCC says in paragraph 27, the “desire for God is written in the human heart … Only in God will- Instant Gratification
- Personal Achievement
- Investing Beyond Self
- Union with God
Ways of Coming To Know God
Paragraphs 31 - 38 talk about how people can come to know that God exists:- The world: “The world’s order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe” (CCC 32).
- The human person: “With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul … Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality ‘that everyone calls God’” (CCC 33).
- Reason: “Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith” (CCC 35).
God Comes To Meet Man: Divine Revelation
Paragraphs 50-73 in the Catechism describe how God reveals himself to us. God reveals himself gradually, in stages of supernatural revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of Christ. His will was that men should have access to the Father, through Christ, and become sharers in the divine nature. God wants to adopt us and make us capable of responding to him, loving him and knowing him far beyond our own capacity. This divine revelation is revealed little by little through the covenants.-
Covenants
- The Fall
- Covenant with Noah
- Covenant with Abraham
- Covenant with Israel (Moses)
- Covenant with David
- The New Covenant in Christ
Transmission of Divine Revelation
How do we receive divine revelation? This is discussed in paragraphs 74-100 of the Catechism. God established a plan to reach all peoples. This plan starts with Apostolic Tradition. Matthew 28:19 states, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” The Lord commanded them to hand on the Gospel in two ways:- Orally: Through preaching, their example, and the institutions they established. They preached what they received, whether from the lips of the Lord, from his way of life or from the Holy Spirit.
- Writing: Those who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.